February 2026

BIF NZ Newsletter February 2026 Chief Executive's Report: Julien Leys Happy belated new year everyone. I hope you were able to have a nice break over the festive season. We have some big projects coming up this year in the New Zealand building and construction space. We are still seeing residential building costs increasing, according to the Cordell Construction Cost Index, but confidence seems to be returning to our industry, reflected in the number of dwellings consents starting to rise again. Things are looking up for construction firms, with activity expected to generally trend higher this year. With a number of projects being fast-tracked plus being an election year, 2026 could be an interesting one for building and construction in New Zealand. You may have seen that the changes to granny flat rules have been introduced and now small standalone dwellings do not require building or resource consents. However, builds still require a Project Information Memorandum before work starts. MBIE has a helpful guide to the granny flats exemption on their website if you're unsure about anything. I also recently sat down with Jamie Sinclair, CEO of Watercare, for the next instalment of the Building Leaders Forum series on YouTube. It was a great chat and will be released soon. In the meantime, have a look through our channel and catch up on our past interviews with a number of other industry leaders here.  Finally, we have an exciting event coming up with GS1 New Zealand. The topic is "Digital Labelling - implications for building and construction." It is being held on Tuesday 24th February at 5pm in Auckland Central. Get in touch via office@bifnz.co.nz if you'd like to attend.  As always, keep an eye on our LinkedIn and get in touch if you have any questions, comments, or concerns via office@bifnz.co.nz. Ngā mihi nui, Julien Leys Chief Executive, Building Industry Federation of New Zealand In this newsletter: Building News Recognition of Watermark Certified Products Granny Flat Consent Exemption New Home Consents Up Forsyth Barr Insights: Residential Remains Robust AQA Awards Building News 26th December, via The Post: ‘No more crazy shocks please’: the business of property in 2026 16th January, via AFR: Australian tariff fight brews on Chinese ‘dumping’ 21st January, via RNZ: Christopher Luxon throwing Chris Bishop under the bus on housing, says Chris Hipkins 22nd January, via BusinessDesk: Multi-national Vinci says Fletcher Construction acquisition makes it 'major player' 23rd January, via BusinessDesk: Annual inflation hits 3.1% in December quarter, breaching RBNZ's target band 23rd January, via BusinessDesk: NZTA to 'test' assumptions about second Auckland harbour crossing 27th January, via New Zealand Herald: Home owners could be left exposed as Govt gives itself an out on requiring new-build warranties 28th January, via New Zealand Herald: Mitre 10 Mega Prestons opens in Christchurch as $30m store unveiled 28th January, via The Post: One week, 22 construction firm liquidations 9th February, via Inside Government: Govt confirms LNG import facility build to strengthen energy security 9th February, via RNZ: New and updated standards adopted in line with Australia Source: 123RF via The Post Recognition of Watermark Certified Products MBIE's Building Performance team have published the second set of recognition notes as part of the implementation of approved products certified overseas. The second set of recognition notices can be used in building consent applications now, effective from 9 February 2026.  Click here for more information. Granny Flat Consent Exemption The granny flat consent exemption is now in effect, meaning New Zealanders can now build granny flats in their backyards without needing building or resource consents. “It’s an exciting day for Kiwis across the country who have been waiting for the green light to build a granny flat on their property without going through costly and time-consuming consent processes,” RMA Reform and Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. Read the announcement from Hon. Chris Bishop, Hon. Chris Penk and Hon. Shane Jones here. New Home Consents Up Stats NZ has released their latest building data, revealing there were 36,619 new homes consented in Aotearoa New Zealand in the year ended December 2025, up 9.0 percent compared with the year ended December 2024. “Auckland continued to account for a large share of new homes consented nationally,” economic indicators spokesperson Michelle Feyen said. “More than half of the annual increase came from the region.” Source: Stats NZ Forsyth Barr Insights: Residential Remains Robust Forsyth Barr kindly shares their building consent data with BIF NZ. Their latest report explores the continual lift in residential consents while non-residential remains in the negatives. View the report here.  AQA Awards AQA have expanded their Women in Extractives Awards on offer this year, with nominations closing on Friday 27th February. Nominations can be submitted here.  LinkedIn Website If you would like to be on the mailing list to receive our BIF monthly newsletters directly, please let us know by emailing office@bifnz.co.nz View this email in your browser Copyright © 2025 BIF All rights reserved. If you want to unsubscribe from our newsletter, simply click here: Unsubscribe

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